Play Diplomacy Online

This is the place for games which are currently being created and developed, and where the designer is listening to feedback from other players. The game is not ready to play, and the designers are not looking for sign-ups - indeed, they may have no intention of GMing the game themselves when it is finished. But your input is welcome!

Forum rules
Despite repeated requests, designers are still regularly posting maps of several hundred Kb size. All maps should be under 80Kb and preferable 50-60 maximum. Unless you have prior permission, any larger map will be removed without warning.

joe91 wrote:Yeah, that's a decent idea. That particular blue is a bit too contrasting but I've updated the map with a new shade of blue for the rivers.

That looks better! It would still help to be able to more clearly see the endpoints (and how rivers connect to other regions).

The only other thing is the river abbreviations; the western rivers are particularly hard to read. It might work better to switch their color based on the background. So while they're in dark territories, use white text. While they're in lighter territories, use the dark blue text.

nopunin10did wrote:The only other thing is the river abbreviations; the western rivers are particularly hard to read. It might work better to switch their color based on the background. So while they're in dark territories, use white text. While they're in lighter territories, use the dark blue text.

Yeah I will probably do something like that during the game. Funnily though, it's not the dark colour that makes it hard to read per se. It's the contrast between the other colours. I filled in all of Europe with Germany's grey and it was easy to read, France's blue was the same, Poland the same. In fact, as long as the same colour surrounds the rivers it's easy to read for all the countries. I don't know why that is. Some sort of visual effect happening in our brains perhaps?

nopunin10did wrote:The only other thing is the river abbreviations; the western rivers are particularly hard to read. It might work better to switch their color based on the background. So while they're in dark territories, use white text. While they're in lighter territories, use the dark blue text.

Yeah I will probably do something like that during the game. Funnily though, it's not the dark colour that makes it hard to read per se. It's the contrast between the other colours. I filled in all of Europe with Germany's grey and it was easy to read, France's blue was the same, Poland the same. In fact, as long as the same colour surrounds the rivers it's easy to read for all the countries. I don't know why that is. Some sort of visual effect happening in our brains perhaps?

It's because of the way they contrast. When you put, say, teal on a completely red background, its legible. But when half the background is red and half is white, the teal on red is barely legible if it is at all. It's because of how we create expectations that what we see will continue, and when it doesn't, it makes it harder to see (even if it's fine in isolation). Couldn't tell you all the science behind it, just that it works like that

Unlike the previous redraw I managed to get this done very quickly. A couple of hours on Tuesday evening and all of yesterday evening. Not having to reskin a map takes a lot of time out of the work!

The changes made have come about because of issues that have appeared in game's 1 and 2. The AAR of game 2 brought up a lot of opinion from players which I've taken into account as well as using my own judgement from watching the game unfold.

Main changes:

West Africa removed as a player, Guinea and Nigeria added instead

East Africa renamed to Ethiopia and main territory split in 2

France starts as a 5-power centre

Britain starting units changed to all fleets

Murmansk SC moved to Karelia, Russian unit for Rostov-on-Don starts in Volga and Lapland removed

West AfricaBy far the biggest change on the map is removing West Africa and replacing it with Guinea and Nigeria. This turns the map into a 15-player game. I was extremely hesitant to do this as 14 players seems perfect (it's 2 diplomacy boards!), but in the end I felt the West African hegemony needed to be resolved. West Africa being the only power in the south west was in both games able to sit in that corner and grow without much worry of being attacked other than from what was above. Now, with their being 2 powers there will be less certainty in that region. It has also introduced 3 triangles of power into Africa between the 5 different countries.

Both Guinea and Nigeria start with 3 centres and an additional Production Supply Centre. Guinea has Sierra Leone and Nigeria has Cameroon.

East Africa Becomes EthiopiaOK, I know the span of territory is far greater than the country of Ethiopia, but I just didn't want to have only 1 power not named after a country. Ethiopia was also split into 2 to give it more power by not having to bounce in Sudan in the opening year, or at least not have to be worried about that bounce.

France Starts With 5One of the biggest problems in this game has been the lack of balance for France. Even after the first round of modifications to the map I tried to increase the power for France, but it didn't work. I have thus increased the power of France considerably by making it a power which starts with 5 centres, meaning there are now 3 powers which start with 5 centres. For France, Bordeaux has been added as a supply centre. To avoid Spain being eaten alive, France will start with a fleet in Bordeaux and an army in Marseilles.

Britain Starting With All FleetsBritain will feel the effect of France starting with 2 fleets on it's west coast, so thus Britain now starts with fleets in all home supply centres. There is no reason to handicap Britain by making it start with an army.

Changes to RussiaRussia was made far too weak in the first change. This has now been rectified. Murmansk SC has moved to Karelia and to eliminate unnecessary deadspace Lapland has been removed as a territory. In addition to this, the starting unit for Rostov-on-Don will start in Volga. The SC stays where it is, but since Russia has no other supply centres which are guaranteed in the first year, it now has Kazakhstan.

Changes to IranIran has been jigged around ever so slightly to accommodate the fact it can no longer guarantee Kazakhstan. Mashhad has been removed as a territory and it's SC moved to Isfahan. Isfahan no longer borders Iraq as Ilam now borders Busheur. Zahedan has acquired the space which Mashhad used to occupy. Busheur has been changed to start with an army to encourage a bounce in Iraq. Iran can now only guarantee Kuwait in the opening year but starts with enough armies to compensate for this.

Supply Centre ChangesBenin and Central African Republic were removed as SC's as the creation of Guinea and Nigeria added more than enough SC's to the African continent. Cameroon was added as a Production Supply Centre for Nigeria.

Oman was added as a supply centre equidistant between Iran and Ethiopia.

There are now 97 SC's on the board, however the victory conditions of 40 will remain unchanged.

Cape Rules TweakedTravel around the cape now includes the South Atlantic Ocean. The rules of travel have been tweaked to be very similar to the "Suez rules" of 1900. A fleet travelling from SAO/GoG arrives in the Indian Ocean with full strength. A fleet travelling from IND arrives with half strength. This is to balance out somewhat the fact that a fleet in IND has 2 options to move to.

Next RunI honestly have no idea. I don't have much free time anymore and I cannot take on the task of GM'ing this without knowing I'll be able to deliver on the deadlines. I'm in the process of getting licensed to start a nanobrewery, still have the report software going on, am trying to buy my first house and am planning for a wedding. Thus free time is hard to come by atm. If another GM wants to run this they are more than welcome to. The map is created in GIMP with all the units layered up per power which makes it very easy to move units around and add/delete units. It takes me roughly 40 minutes to adjudicate this map once all neutrals have been taken. I can write up a guide on how to GM in GIMP if required.